Mature Content Warning: None really.

Author's Note: and thus endeth chapter 14. :)

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Chapter 14.3: A Beautiful Pack Mule

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It was late afternoon on Earth, and Scott had just finished a few projects that he had set for himself. During the night they had finished their experiment. Sonja could smuggle things back and forth between the worlds, though she was limited by what she could carry. She could not smuggle a house, for instance. It had to be something that she held or wore, and there seemed to be a weight limit. She could not smuggle a table to the other world, but she could smuggle smaller things. It seemed like there was some sort of weird smugglers rule that they had to figure out.

“There, that should do it.” Scott closed down the online site that he had used to place an order. Wire and jewelry crafting equipment were far less expensive on Earth. He had ordered all manner of equipment, and splurged a large amount of his current wealth. However, he already had a plan to get around his lack of funds.

The dark lord of the dream world smiled happily. He just had to seek out opponents that dropped better items to help with the plan, but, he could easily convert his Jerin to Earth currency. It required a roundabout method, but it might be quite lucrative.

He went to his favorite site that discussed the dream world then perused the item lists that people had posted. He nodded his head then smiled. As long as he could smuggle items back and forth, he had already formulated a simple plan that would earn money and help him to evade taxation. It was the American way, after all.

“Mas- Scott?” asked Sonja. She rubbed her eyes softly then yawned. The poor girl had cried for a while after their heart felt moment and then she had been worked like a beautiful pack mule.

She had insisted on it, but Scott still felt at least a little bad about it. Either way, she had needed to rest after they finished the test and her master had indulged her.

“What’s up?” asked Scott.

“Nothing, I just woke up.” she said. Her eyes were still a little red, but she wore a soft and sweet smile.

“How are you feeling?” he asked her gently.

“Better...” she said, before she walked over and stood next to him. She looked down at the computer then tilted her head to the side. She swished her lips from side to side cutely while she tried to figure out what she was looking at.

“I’ve determined a possible way to increase our standard of living here. If you’re up for it?” said Scott.

She placed her hand atop his and squeezed gently. “I’m happy to help.”

“Right, let’s get started. I blew off work again today since I am not quite ready to go back and I won’t answer my phone till Monday.”

He took a breath and continued, “That gives us the rest of today to get prepared, and tomorrow morning to earn some money.”

“OK...” said Sonja. That had not really explained how they would earn money.

Scott grinned at her then patted her hand, the one that currently rested atop his other hand. “Let me take a long nap here. The preparations must be made in your home world, and we might as well do a few other things while we work.”

“Sure.” she said. Maybe they would go hunting? She felt like killing things for fun and profit.

Scott took the last of his cold medicine then finished up a few things that he planned to do around the house. Roughly a half hour later he slipped into the other world.

Blackthorne awoke slowly then looked around the room. Nothing had changed in the inn room that they utilized. He stood up then walked over to the window. It looked to be sometime around midday. “Hmm, a little over two days have passed here, I think.”

He turned then summoned Sonja before him. The Valkyrie appeared in a shimmer of light. She was disoriented for a brief moment, but then managed to regain her bearings and smiled at her master.

“So, we meet again.” she said.

Blackthorne laughed at her then nodded. “Fancy that.”

She offered him an amused smile then stretched. She had taken off the clothes that Scott had given her and donned her armor once more.

The dragon in human form took in the sight of her eclectic armor and decided that he would have to upgrade her gear soon. She deserved better, even if her current ensemble was far more useful than the apron that she had worn so delightfully.

They left the room then headed out to the armorer’s shop. He might have something worth their time.

“Ah, welcome back Blackthorne. Did you want to buy those tools?” asked the armorer with excitement.

“Actually, that has been taken care of, what I wanted to know is if you have any gold or copper lying around that you might want to sell in bulk.” said Blackthorne.

“Sell gold in bulk? If you meet someone who can do that, send him my way!” said the man with a laugh.

“Ha, that’s what I thought. How about copper?” he asked.

“Copper is a bit easier. It’s a cheap and easy to acquire metal after all.”

“How cheap, and how much of it can I get?” asked Blackthorne.

The armorer scratched his head. “I can’t say that I know why you would want so much copper, it isn’t really worth anything unless you want to make kitchen knives or decorative items... Oh, you like to make jewelry!”

The man came to a conclusion that seemed agreeable then nodded decisively. It made sense that Blackthorne would want to buy a lot of copper to make jewelry. “Well, I can sell you copper if you want to buy a lot of it.”

“How much is a lot?”

“I’d have to sell it at two Jerin per unit, and a unit lot of one thousand at minimum.”

“Is a unit about the size of an egg?” asked Blackthorne.

“Yeah, the same as iron or any other metals except for gold, platinum, and those fancy mystic metals.” said the armorer.

Blackthorne rubbed his chin. “Could you handle ten thousand units?”

“You want to empty my entire inventory man? No, I can do maybe three thousand. I have a few orders to fill that require copper.”

“Sounds good.” said the dragon. He extended his human hand out and shook hands with the armorer.

Blackthorne immediately fished around in his bag and started pulling out the money needed for the transaction. It never ceased to amaze him that money did not seem to take up space in his bag.

A thought occurred to him and Blackthorne asked, “What shape will the copper be delivered as?”

“Shape?” asked the armorer.

“Yes, will it be sheets of metal?” asked Blackthorne.

“Ah, it can be any shape you like unless it is something intricate.”

Blackthorne rubbed his chin. “How about tube shapes?”

“Tubes?” asked the armorer.

“Yes, long poles but hollow on the inside.” said the dark knight.

“Oh, yes, of course. We make such things for people who want to sheath things in copper or bronze.” said the armorer.

“How long would you like your tubes?” he further asked.

“Hmm, arm-length maybe?” suggested Blackthorne.

“Does it matter what arm I use?” asked the armorer with a smile.

Blackthorne laughed then shook his head. “Not really, but can you make the hollow inside part about as wide as a man’s finger. Before you ask, it does not matter whose finger is used.”

The armorer grinned at him then nodded. “Fair enough. You want two thousand units of copper made into arm-length finger width tubes?”

“Sounds right.” said Blackthorne.

The armorer brought out a contract sheet and they finished going over the sales order. Given the armorer’s skill, he would require five units of copper per tube. Blackthorne would receive six hundred tubes, or as he thought of them pipes.

“How long will it take?” he asked, after he paid the man.

“Actually, I can be done with that by tomorrow. My apprentices can easily make that sort of thing, as they have mastered copper smithing as well.” said the armorer.

Blackthorne grinned. “Alright, should I come by in the morning to start collecting them?”

“That would be fine.” said the shopkeeper.

As an afterthought Blackthorne asked the man, “Does that mine produce anything besides iron.”

“Iron mostly, but occasionally you can acquire copper or even silver. Sometimes semi-precious gemstones will pop up if you are in the deepest part of the mine.” said the armor smith.

The dark knight nodded to the man then bid him goodbye. On the way out Sonja smiled then said, “So, how much do you think that will be worth on Earth?”

“Depends on how much all that copper will weigh. The salvage yard told me that they are buying bare bright copper, the stuff the armorer sold me, for just under three dollars per pound.”

“Hmm, so how many pounds would you think to be?” she asked.

“Honestly, I am not sure but probably over a thousand pounds.”

“Is that good? You’ll earn close to three thousand dollars?” she asked.

“Yeah, what I intend to do is slightly shady, so I won’t get that much. I don’t want to have to pay taxes on this stuff.” said Blackthorne.

“Hmm... I see. What do you mean by shady?” she asked, curious.

“I’ll sell the stuff to a few guys I know who are in the salvage business. I might get a bit over a thousand dollars out of the deal. I’d earn more if I went to a scrap yard, but they might ask questions and they would need my personal information for legal purposes.”

“Would you earn that much less if you paid these taxes?” she asked.

“No, I would probably earn twice as much. However, I plan to do things like this regularly and people might start to ask where a guy gets that much copper or gold. I would prefer not to have to explain my business model to the IRS.” said Blackthorne.

Sonja nodded. “That makes sense.”

“Of course, once those businesses that buy and sell Jerin stabilize, I’ll probably sell some directly as well. I don’t trust those places yet, though.” he said.

“Buy and sell Jerin?” she asked.

“Yeah, people who want Jerin might buy it from other dreamers using Earth money. That sort of thing is new and I don’t know anyone who I trust to not just run off with my money, yet. We’ll be smugglers for a while.”

“Would you do this same sort of thing with gold?”

“Absolutely, the same guys would buy any sort of metal. I could also sell jewelry that I make at flea markets, and use that as a cover to create a legitimate seeming business as a front for my tax evasion.” said Blackthorne in an open and brazen manner.

Sonja smiled in wry amusement. Her master was a little shady, after all. She could work with that. She did have to ask one more question, though. “Won’t people notice that you’re earning money anyway?”

Blackthorne nodded to her. “Sadly, I’ll have to continue to work at my current job as a cover for a while, unless they have fired me already.”

“What if they fired you?” she asked.

An absurdly happy expression arose upon his face for the briefest of moments. It morphed into one of sorrow and regret not long after. “Please don’t make me contemplate breaking out in song this early in the afternoon.”

They shared a happy laugh and continued on their way. There were monsters to slay and goods to smuggle between worlds.